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The second type of trade card is called a “private design” card (see time. Some of the products most heavily advertised included patent
fig. 3). These were considerably more expensive to produce. Typically, medicines (see fig. 4), food, tobacco, clothing, personal grooming
the product or service, in some form of use, would be displayed on (see fig. 5), household items and furniture (see fig. 6), and machinery
the front of the card. Sometimes, the card would even show the benefit (see fig. 7). In short, they covered every aspect of life in the late 19th
of using the product before and after taking it. The back held the century, designed with the idea that they would be held onto by the
advertisement or could be left blank. Private design trade cards are the buyer as a constant reminder of the product or service advertised. These
most desirable to collectors. colorful cards were printed by the hundreds of thousands and given
There is a third possible type of trade card called a “die-cut.” They away free by merchants. They were mainly collected and pasted into
can either be a stock card or a private design card. They are unlike a scrapbooks for fun and made an interesting family pastime. Those same
typical trade card in shape and are produced by using a cookie cutter- scrapbooks, taken apart by soaking the pages, are the highly prized
like device called a “die.” The printer would use larger sheets of paper source of most of the trade cards that exist in today’s marketplace.
that were then trimmed to size using the die.

THE TRENDY SIDE OF ADVERTISING TRADE CARDS
Trade card collecting was a popular fad from the late 1870s through
the 1890s. They advertised every imaginable product and service of the

Figure 8: Chromolithograph. 36 Star American Flag.
Williams genuine Yankee Soap TC. Ben Crane Collection
Figure 5: Chromolithograph. Leda and the Swan(s)? Hall’s Vegetable Sicilian
Hair Renewer TC. Del and Kathy Kahlstorf Collection.
WITH CHANGE COMES MORE CARDS
The Victorian Era in the United States was a period of high activity
and great change. Highlighted by the addition of new states to the
Union, the discovery of gold in California, the Arts and Crafts
Movement, the Temperance Movement, the emergence of sports
as a national pastime, the 1893 Columbian Exposition, and much,
much more.
A good example of the expanding statehood during this time is
shown in figure 8, “Williams Genuine Yankee Soap.” Here, we see a
36-star American Flag that
was official from July 4,
1865, to July 4, 1867,
following the admission of
Nevada into the Union on
October 31st, 1864.
The California Gold
Figure 6: Chromolithograph. The Celebrated Rip Van Winkle Reclining Rocking Rush (1848-1855) began
Chair. The P. C. Lewis Mfg. Co. TC. Chris and Juliet Pagel Collection. when gold was discovered at
Sutters Mill. The news of
gold brought approximately
300,000 people to California
from the rest of the U.S. and
abroad. They arrived using
all forms of transportation,
including ships like the
one seen in figure 9 – the
preferred method used by
Easterners heading West.
The Arts and Crafts
Movement was initiated in
reaction to the perceived
impoverishment of the deco-
rative arts and the conditions
Figure 9: Chromolithograph. Coleman’s in which they were produced.
California Line for San Fransico. Golden The movement flourished in
Fleece Clipper Ship TC.
Figure 7 : Chromolithograph. When Ajax Defied The Lightning. Jackson Wagon John Kemler Collection. Europe and North America
TC. Ben Crane Collection.
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